I suppose we will never hear the following words, but one can always hope.
Friends, up until a few weeks ago most of you had never heard of me or the Dove World Outreach Center, which I have served as pastor since 1996. We are a small, 50-member non-denominational Christian church. So there is no reason you should have ever heard of us. Since 2002, I’ve been using the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to preach about the inherent evils of Islam. I wrote about the goal of Islam being the destruction of our way of life in my book Islam Is of the Devil. But none of this even raised a blip on the national radar.
It was not until this past summer when I decided to promote an international protest of Islam by burning a Koran on September 11, 2010, that I became known outside a small cult of fanatics. I set up a Facebook page that attracted almost 700 followers by midsummer. Still, I labored in relative obscurity until the Orlando Sun-Sentinel did a story on me that attracted the attention of the national media. General David Petraeus said my protest would endanger the troops and world leaders condemned my actions. Protests took place around the world in which American flags were burned. My Facebook page soared to almost 9,000 followers.
As the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks drew nearer, I received death threats and notes of encouragement and praise. I was finally approached by an associate of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, of the Ground Zero Mosque, and asked if I would be willing to meet with the Imam in New York. Suddenly, I was a very important man. I was hounded by the media. I received calls from the White House. I received letters from world leaders. I, an unknown pastor of an unknown church, was now being treated like some celebrity. Some people feared me. Some people loathed me. Some people wanted me dead. In a few short weeks, I had gone from total anonymity to media darling. I had become a force to reckon with, an equal to some very powerful people. Or so I told myself.
But the truth is that I am still the same small, self-important speck of a man I have always been. A pastor of a small and insignificant cult. We profess to be Christian, but there is very little connection between Christianity and the doctrine I preach. Christianity teaches us to love our neighbor. I encourage my followers to hate their neighbor, at least some of their neighbors. Christ asked us to love even our enemies. But I have no love for those whom I consider our enemies. I have demonized them and asked others to do the same.
But what do I know of my enemy, the people who follow the teachings of Islam? Are they really the spawn of the devil that I have made them out to be? I have judged them by the acts of violent extremists who profess to be true Muslims in much the same way I profess to be a true Christian. But I know I am a fraud. And yet, like the jihadists, I have received a lot of media coverage. The rest of the world believes me to be a spokesman, or at least an important person, within the Christian community? Why else would the press hang on my every word? If people are so easily fooled into believing that I represent the Christian faith then perhaps I and many others are mistaken in believing that the jihadists are representative of the Islamic faith.
I began to realize that what little many of us know about Muslims is what we read in the newspapers or see on TV. Most of the media coverage is limited to fringe terrorist groups that are perhaps even more obscure than my own Dove World Outreach Center. We don’t hear about the peaceful, caring Muslims, just like we don’t hear about the Christians who are not bashing gays or promoting hatred of non-Christians. Our knowledge of each other is limited to the most extreme elements among us, hardly a basis on which to make any judgment of each other. The situation isn’t helped by people like me who select passages from the Koran, take them out of context, and try to use them to prove that Muslims are hateful, evil people. Anyone could find similar passages within the Bible to prove that Christians are hateful, evil people too.
I now know that I have failed my faith, my country, and myself. I have helped to foster hatred of millions of Muslims based upon the actions of a few whose acts are not the acts of faithful Muslims any more than the hatred that I have preached can be considered Christian. I have betrayed my faith and in doing so, given the world a false impression of the Christian faith. I am as bad as the Islamic extremists I preach against. I have used hateful speech to paint innocent Muslims as treacherous murderers seeking our destruction. And yet it is people like me who will lead to our destruction if t comes to that.
So I have asked God’s forgiveness. I have vowed to change my ways. I will not now or ever burn the Qur’un or encourage others to do so. I shall work to foster understanding and peace between peoples of different faiths. I will respect the beliefs of others and I will never judge any group by the actions of a few. I beg your forgiveness and I ask you to love one another even as Christ asked us to do. I think if we can follow that one simple request we can rid the world of the hatred and anger that divides us and learn to embrace our differences.